Sun
Yat-sen had once referred “the People’s livelihood”, “the People’s
identity” and “the People’s rights” collectively as the “Three
Principles of the People”, which was at one point the main theme of the
Chinese pursuit of a bright future in the 20th century.

However,
in authoritarian and totalitarian countries where there is a lack of
civil awareness, “the People’s identity” theory could easily be turned
into senseless xenophobia; “the People’s livelihood” theory, [a negative
form of] populism; and “the People’s rights” theory, which is the
prerequisite for protecting the people’s livelihood and ensuring both
the state and the populace would grow rich, could be swept aside with
extreme ease.

Hope of Russia: The Middle Class’ awakening awareness of their rights.

By He Qinglian on June 14, 2012.

There
is a feature in China’s foreign policy in recent years: whenever
Western countries—the United States in particular—made any “unfriendly”
actions, the Chinese government would definitely lodge a strong protest;
yet however “unfriendly” Russia may be to China—whether it is the China
threat theory that repeatedly emerges in Russia, or the unfair and
inhumane treatments that Chinese traders and nationals in Russia have
often been subjected to, the Chinese government would basically respond in a
low key approach. Chinese media, too, turn a blind
eye to them. Their attitude toward Vladimir Putin has been
completely different from their attitude to heads of Western countries.
They would spare no ink when they write about scandals that are
connected to Western heads of state or government; yet when they write about Vladimir
Putin, their reports comprise nothing but praise, and they generally
do not criticize him.

This year marks the 23rd
anniversary of the June-4th incident, and it has been more than 21 years
since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the Socialist bloc in
Eastern and Central Europe. In most of the countries where the socialist
system was imposed on them, for example Eastern European countries, the
humiliation and pain caused by Communism gradually fades away after the
generation(s) that personally experienced it has grown old. In
endogenous communist countries like Russia and China, however, the
former remains in the state of enlightened despotism, the latter has yet
to reach that state.

It is interesting to compare the history and cultural background of the two countries.